HOLA MAHALLA or simply Hola, a Sikh festival, takes place on the first of the lunar month of Chef which usually falls in March. This follows the Hindu festival of Holi. The name Hola is the masculine form of the feminine sounding Holi. Mahalla, derived from the

ALAM SINGH NACHNA (d. 1705), a warrior in the retinue of Guru Gobind Singh, was the son of Bhai Durgu, a Rajput Sikh of Sialkot. He earned the popular epithet Nachna (lit. dancer) because of his uncommon agility. Sarup Das Bhalla, Mahima Prakash, describes him as one of Guru

GURBAKHSH SINGH (also referred to as Bakhshash Singh) and Bakhshish Singh, Ralal Sikhs of Bharoval village in Amritsar district, were among the sangat or batch of Sikhs which led by Duni Chand came from the Majha in pursuance of Guru Gobind Singh`s call to attend the historic assembly convened

RANJIT NAGARA, lit. the drum of victory in battlefield, was the name given the kettledrum installed by Guru Gobind Singh at Anandpur in 1684. Nagdrd, Punjabi for the Persian naqqdrah meaning a kettledrum, was a symbol of royalty. As well as fulfilling his spiritual office, Guru Gobind Singh had, like

ANAK SINGH. warrior son of Bhai Mani Ram, resident of the village of Alipur, district Multan (now in Pakistan), received baptismal rites at Anandpur at the time of the initiation of the Khalsa, on 30 March 1699, and took part in the battles of Nirmohgarh and Anandpur. As says

HIMMAT SINGH, BHAI (1661-1705), one of the Parij Piare, or the Five Beloved, celebrated in Sikh history, was born in 1661 at Jagannath in a low caste family of water suppliers. He came to Anandpur at the young age of 17, and attached himself to the service of Guru

SAHIB DEVAN, by tradition mother of the Khalsa, was the daughter of Bhai Har Bhagvan alias Ramu, a Bassi Khatri, and his wife, Jas Devi, a devout Sikh couple of Rohtas, in Jehlum district (now in Pakistan). Her parents had from the beginning dedicated her to the service of

SHAHI TIBBI, a low mound about 6 km south of KIratpur Sahib (31"11`N, P&`SaE) in Ropar district of the Punjab, was the scene of a fierce battle in the time of Guru Gobind Singh. The Guru who evacuated Anandpur on the night of 56 December 1705, was given a hot

JANGNAMA SIU GURU GOBIND SINGHJIKA, a vdr or stanzas by Am Rai describing Guru Gobind Singh`s battle with a Mughal force at Anandpur. Am Rai was one of the fifty-two poets who enjoyed the Guru`s patronage. The welcome he received on his arrival in Anandpur and the conferment through

SRI GUR SOBHA, a poetical work, part eulogy and part history, is an admixture of Braj and eastern Punjabi, by Sainapati who enjoyed Guru Gobind Singh`s patronage for several years. The work, which had remained unknown to scholars of the recent period, was rediscovered by Akali Kaur Singh and published